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By Humphrey Carter A disgruntled former hotel employee was yesterday arrested after having allegedly gone on the rampage in the resort of Cala Ratjada, setting fire to his ex-employers hotel.

The 34-year Argentine was yesterday being held by the Guardia Civil accused of having not only set fire to the Hotel Club Cala Ratjada but also breaking into and damaging a number of cars parked near the complex in calle Can Pastilla.

According to the police, the 34-year-old who apparently worked at the hotel on a part-time basis, slipped into the hotel complex at around 4am and lit three separate fires.

One of the blazes caused serious damage to 10 bedrooms while the other two targeted the bar and the boiler rooms.
Fortunately the hotel is one of many in Majorca which is still closed for Easter and busy getting ready for the start of the summer season - so the complex was empty at the time of the fire.

Nevertheless, the blaze will delay the complex's summer opening.
On leaving the hotel, the suspect is then alleged to have broken into a number of parked cars near the complex causing even more damage.
The Argentine suspect was eventually arrested in the proximity of the damaged hotel in a joint Guardia Civil-Local Police operation.
Fire crews from Artà, Manacor, Felanitx, Ca´n Picafort and Llucmajor were involved in fighting the blaze and it took fire fighters the best part of five hours to put the fire out.

The hotel complex comprises three buildings and was due to open in April.
However, the 200 square metre ground floor of one of the buildings was gutted along with four bedrooms.
In the second block, two rooms were severely damaged and in the third, a further four.
Yesterday afternoon, fire inspection officers visited the complex to examine the damage while engineers inspected the structure of the buildings. Repair work is expected to get underway as soon as possible.